OMG Aurora! Thread

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

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Be on the lookout for another northern lights display this week

The sun has recently been a bubble of activity, and the effects are coming this way

Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News · Posted: Jul 29, 2024 2:40 PM PDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

An onlooker gazes up at the spectacular northern lights display on May 10, 80 kilometres from Airdrie, Alta. Recent solar activity means there is a chance for more northern lights this week. (Submitted by Chris Ratzlaff)

 

If all goes well, Canadians may once again see the night sky erupt in a multitude of colours.

 

The sun has been very active over the past few days, sending out several strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which can produce the northern lights.

 

Our star goes through an 11-year cycle when activity on its surface rises and falls, called solar maximums and solar minimums. Currently the sun is at solar maximum.

 

When this happens, the sun's surface is pockmarked with sunspots, cooler areas that have complicated magnetic fields. When these magnetic fields get entangled they can burst free, resulting in a solar flare.

 

Several groups of sunspots are seen on the sun on Monday. The spots give rise to solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which in turn can cause the northern and southern lights. (Spaceweather.com)

 

Often, these flares are followed by CMEs, huge bursts of charged particles — think billions of tons of material.

 

This is just what happened over the weekend. 

 

"Basically, the sun's woken up from a bit of a sleep," said Chris Ratzlaff, a seasoned aurora chaser from Airdrie, Alta. 

 

"It's been relatively quiet, but now seems to have woken up with an abrupt start."

 

This gif shows several coronal mass ejections over the past week. Their effects will reach Earth as early as Monday. (Helioviewer.org)

 

Over the weekend, the sun produced several mid-class M-flares (X-flares are the strongest) and two CMEs, both of which are heading our way.

 

But the sun didn't stop there. The next day, several more CMEs were released, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SPWC), which issued a geomagnetic storm watch, indicating that the effects of all this activity will soon be felt.

 

The storm could hit Earth tonight, potentially creating bright northern lights, or aurora borealis. However the chances increase on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

 

Natural Resources Canada is also forecasting potential storm levels for lower latitudes, south of the polar region.

 

A geomagnetic storm watch was issued by the Space Weather Prediction Center on Monday. (NOAA/SWPC)

'Temper expectations'

 

The last major solar storm to hit Earth was on the night of May 10-11. That night, two CMEs from X-flares slammed into Earth, producing an incredible display of both northern and southern lights that were seen across the globe.

 

The current heightened activity on the sun — which is still ongoing — is similar, but also different.

 

"Leading up to May 10, we had several X-flares," Ratzlaff said. "So the difference is quite notable, in that here we're dealing with a large volume of flares, as opposed to a couple of fairly large flares."

 

Similar to the May 10 forecast, the SWPC is forecasting a strong geomagnetic storm of G3 (the scale goes from G1 to G5). The hope is that it will produce a similar result, though predicting the northern lights is incredibly difficult. 

 

Ratzlaff says he often tells people to "temper their expectations," noting that there is only a 30 per cent chance the storm will occur as predicted.  

 

"There's a 70 per cent chance that nothing's going to happen," he said. 

 

WATCH | The May 10 northern lights in Kawartha Lakes, Ont.:

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If you'd like to increase the chances of seeing the northern lights, the first thing is to keep abreast of the forecast. You can visit websites such as SpaceWeather.com and SpaceWeatherLive.com. There are also several free apps if you search "aurora alerts."

 

To see them, it's best to get to a "dark-sky" location, away from city lights. As Ratzlaff said, "If you can see the stars, you can see aurora."

 

And, as their name explains, look to the north, though sometimes — as in May — extremely strong storms can make them also appear to the south.

 

You can also try photographing them with a DSLR camera, which is more sensitive than our eyes. The key is to set a high ISO such as 800 or 1600, and leave the shutter open for at least 10 to 25 seconds. You can play around with the settings, as brighter aurora won't need a high ISO and you won't have to leave the shutter open as long. And it's important to use a tripod.

 

But the last display was so bright that even cellphone cameras could pick up the colours, so that is also an option.

 

Ratzlaff says he's excited that there's another opportunity for another fantastic display, but he's realistic.

 

"Hope for the best, anticipate the worst is really my motto," he said. "I try not to get disappointed anymore when something doesn't pan out the way we were expecting it to, because I know that there's always going to be another chance."

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/northern-lights-chance-1.7278951

 

Probably no bueno that we have mucho mucho cloud cover tonight.  

[Sabrefan1]

The aurora light show visited Western New York and Southern Ontario a 2-3 months ago.  It happened not long after the total eclipse of the sun. 

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

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Meteor shower, northern lights expected over B.C. skies

 

In this 30 second cameras exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) (NASA/Bill Ingalls) For copyright and restrictions refer to - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

   

By Charles Brockman

Posted August 9, 2024 5:42 pm.

 

If your weekend plans don’t involve looking at the night sky, you might miss out.

 

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower will peak this weekend, and there’s a chance it could be coupled with the northern lights over parts of B.C.

 

Michael Unger, the programs coordinator at the H.R. Macmillan Space Centre in Vancouver, tells 1130 NewsRadio that the planet is about to move through the remnants of a comet.

 

“So every year, around this time, there is a big cloud of debris that the Earth moves through,” said Unger.

 

“And this is the weekend to see the Perseid Meteor Shower. Of course, because they are tiny particles of dust and rock, you’d really need to get to a dark sky to see them. You don’t need a telescope, you don’t need any fancy equipment, really. You just need a really dark location and, hopefully, a large sky.”

 

He says if you do plan to head into somewhere dark, away from urban light pollution, you should get there 30 minutes before the shower starts to let your eyes adjust.

 

“I don’t want people to be going out for a 5 minute walk, or 10 minute walk, expecting to see something. You’ve got to set yourself up, get a nice blanket, maybe something warm to drink and be prepared to be out there for a couple hours,” said Unger.

 

He says the shower will start to be visible around midnight.

 

At the same time, Unger says, people in the Lower Mainland might get to see the northern lights. He says thanks to recent solar flare activity, “coronal mass ejections” are making their way across space to react with Earth’s atmosphere.

 

“There is a a small chance in the Lower Mainland to see it [Friday night], maybe a bit better on Saturday or perhaps Sunday to see them. But again, it’s the same conditions for the meteor shower. You need to be in a really dark sky location and you also have to be patient as well. “

 

Unger says the confluence of the two events over the same location is extremely rare.

 

“I’ve been a sky watcher my whole life and I’ve never seen both of them at the same time,” he said.

He says this weekend is also an opportunity for people to pause and be “present.”

 

“When you’re out there looking up at the stars and looking at these incredibly vast, distant places, you get the sense that we live in such a huge, majestic universe. And by seeing meteor showers, by seeing the aurora borealis, I think we’ve become a little bit more connected. And I think we all could use a little bit of that in our lives.”

 

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/08/09/perseid-meteor-shower-over-bc-metro-vancouver/

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

 

Me, if the clouds don't clear up soon:

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

Looks like there's stuff happening right now in northern Europe.  Not sure if this geomagnetic storm will continue tonight our time.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/geomagnetic-storm-northern-lights-1.7348726

 

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A powerful geomagnetic storm is underway that could trigger intense northern lights tonight

Last geomagnetic storm to be this intense was on May 10-11

Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News · Posted: Oct 10, 2024 11:14 AM PDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

An intense display of the northern lights is seen over on Anarchist Mountain near Osoyoos, B.C., on Oct. 9. There is the potential for more northern lights on Thursday and Friday. (Debra Ceravolo)

 

Get ready to pull out your cameras: There's a geomagnetic storm underway, and it could produce the northern lights across the country.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has called for a major geomagnetic storm that was anticipated to hit Earth Thursday and into Friday, and it's already begun.

 

A geomagnetic storm is a disturbance of the Earth's magnetic field, typically triggered by solar activity on the sun.

 

On a scale of G1 to G5, the SWPC predicted a G4, which was reached earlier Thursday afternoon. For comparison, the geomagnetic storm that occurred on May 10-11 was a G5.

But the caveat, as always, is that the northern lights are difficult to predict.

The northern lights are seen over Harrowsmith, Ont., on the night of Oct. 8. (Malcolm Park)

For example, last week the SPWC had forecast a G3 storm for the weekend after two powerful solar flares erupted from the sun, followed by a coronal mass ejection, which sends particles from the sun on a fast wind towards Earth. If these particles interact with our magnetic field, we get the northern lights.

 

Initially, however, it looked like it was a miss. A few days later, though, the northern lights could be seen as far south as South Dakota and other parts of the U.S.

 

 

"We have a fair amount of confidence in our timing and intensity," Shawn Dawl, the service co-ordinator for SWPC said in a press teleconference on Wednesday about today and tomorrow's potential, and it looks like their forecast was fairly accurate.

 

But for the northern lights to happen, a lot of things have to line up. 

 

"If you think of two magnets and they have the same polarity and you try to put them together, they repel; if they're opposite, they connect, and the magnets will stay together," Dawl explained. 

 

"Same thing here: if that magnetic field in the [coronal mass ejection] is the same as Earth's we'll have an initial impact and effect and immediate enhancement and geomagnetic response no doubt, but we probably will not reach to those severe levels or or potentially higher.

 

"If it's favourably connected ... then we will escalate in in responses, and that's where the true potential will come in."

Warnings to government officials

Powerful geomagnetic storms, albeit beautiful, also have the potential to disrupt power grids, as was seen in Quebec in 1989.

 

That served as a lesson to power companies around the world, which have since taken measures to prevent such disruptions in power lines.

 

For example, the May storm did not cause any power disruptions.

 

However, SWPC, did say that, in light of the two hurricanes that have recently knocked out power to millions in parts of the southwestern U.S., they have issued a warning to government agencies.

 

"We've already been talking with high leadership; we've already been engaged with FEMA ... [and] of course North American power grid with all the hurricane relief efforts going on," Dawl said.

 

"We thought it prudent to immediately contact them now so we did that. We've already made a call to the North American power grid for their understanding to do any additional things they may need to do in preparation for the storm should we reach G4 and G5 levels."

 

As of 1 p.m. ET Thursday, the SWPC said that the storm had reached G4 levels.

 

Images were already being released from Australia and Europe.

 

The question now will be whether or not the storm persists into the night hours for North America, though the forecast predicted that the display could last for roughly 12 hours. That won't be as long as the May storm that lasted for more than 24 hours.

 

There are a bunch of photos and xits that were embedded that likely won't show here so I encourage you to read the article if you want the full flavour of the contents.

[LionofJudah]

Just got to see some lights myself from southern Ontario. A first for me. Wish I had a better camera for photos but still cool to have seen. Only my second time actually seeing them so I'm buzzin!

Edited October 11, 2024 by LionofJudah

[aGENT]

My backyard